Field of Flowers
by WikketKrikket
Summary: A short piece concerning Serenity's eye operation and what Joey's first visit would be like if the surgery had not succeeded, but failed. Author name changed from Waffles4eva


A/N: This was just a lil' idea I had that wouldn't go away till I wrote it, and I had it on two very good authorities that I should post this. So thanks to **Willowwind **and **Scooby2408 **for their opinions! This is probably the shortest thing I've written- I believe the appropriate definition would be a drabble? _(Ish confused)_- and is written as though Serenity's eye operation that Joey fought so hard to get her at DK failed.

Disclaimer: Don't own

And so, without further ado…

Field of Flowers

"Yeah. I'll come." Joey agreed, slowly, and put the phone down, not bothering to say goodbye. He began heading for the door.

"Hey, hey, wait!" Yugi protested. "Aren't you going to tell us what your mom said?"

Joey stopped, his hand paused on the door handle, but said nothing.

"Joey…?" Téa prompted. "…What's up…?"

He turned and looked at his friends. He wasn't smiling. "The operation failed." He muttered, quietly. "She's blind. Probably always will be, to."

The silence that ensued was simply because nobody knew what to say. Joey continued.

"So all that work," He said, haltingly. "All those duels… All that money… It was all for nothing, in the end."

"You did everything you could, Joey." Téa reminded him, finally finding her tongue.

"We all did." Joey pointed out, turning back to the door. "But I guess it just wasn't enough." He left hastily. He had promised his mom he'd go down to the hospital and see her, but first, he needed to be alone. He didn't want them to see him cry. He didn't want her to see him cry either; but that was no longer a problem.

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"Serenity." His mom said, announcing their presence. "There's someone here to see you." Joey could see her, sitting on a bed next to a window. She had turned at the sound of her mother's voice, and he could see her eyes, already free of the bandages. They were open, staring at things she could not see, as if to fool him into thinking it was alright after all. Her eyes were looking, but not seeing anything.

"Who is it?" Serenity asked, in confusion. Joey knew they were both waiting for him to reveal himself, but he just couldn't do it. The words seemed to be stuck behind a lump in his throat.

"Someone you know very well." Her mom eventually supplied, cryptically. She ducked back out of the room, the door clicking closed behind her. Things were not as good as they could be between Joey and his mother, so she had decided to leave them to it. And perhaps she needed some time on her own, just as he had needed it. Perhaps later, Serenity would need some to. Slowly, he walked over to the bed, sitting down next to her. She moved her hand around a little, until it located his, and she felt it carefully.

"Joey…?" She asked, slowly. "Joey, it's you, isn't it!"

"Yeah." He replied, softly, moving his hand around to grip hers. "It's me." She turned her face away, so it was pointing back at the window again, as if she knew that he couldn't stand to be looked at but not be seen, not by her.

"I hoped that the next time you came to see me…" She said, slowly. "I'd be able to see you. But even when I didn't see you, and you couldn't see me, you were there the whole time…"

"I… I brought these for you. Flowers." He took his hand away from hers, and curled them around the bouquet. It was a silly, pointless, thing to do, but he hadn't known what else could be done. How could he possibly help her through this one…?

"They smell beautiful." She whispered, gently feeling each individual flower head, finding the shape and texture, the way the petals tessellated, how the pollen fit in, finding the tiniest veins on the stems. "…What colour are they?"

"All sorts." Joey answered, looking at the brightly coloured bunch.

"Show me." She asked, quietly. And so, he did; guiding her hands over each individual plant, carefully describing each part of the kaleidoscope of colours as best he could, trying to leave no detail unsaid, looking at flowers more carefully then he ever had done before in his life.

"Like the ones outside." Serenity smiled softly.

"What?" Joey asked, confused. They were in the middle of the city. There were no flowers in the middle of a city, not anymore.

"This window." Serenity replied, moving her hand up the wall until it came into contact with the cool glass. "Mom described it all to me. She showed me a beautiful field of flowers, just like these. Colourful and bright and dancing in the wind, as far as the eye can see… And now I can smell them to." She sniffed the ones he'd brought again.

Joey looked out at the window. It was small, and the view worse. It looked out over the hospital carpark. There were no flowers, and no colour; just grey tarmac, with a few white lines to delegate spots. The only thing dancing in the wind was the rubbish from an upturned bin. It didn't stretch as far as the eye could see either. You could only see as far as the opposite side of the road, where houses and shops loomed over the cars passing by.

"Serenity…" He said, uncertainly.

"It's okay." She assured him. "I know it's not there, not really. I can hear the cars going by sometimes. But in my head, I can see it all perfectly. It's really amazing, Joey. I can't see at all, but the world has never seemed so beautiful." She carefully placed the flowers down, and found his hand again. "I always wanted to see what you do..." She stated, simply. "But now, I just wish that _you_ could see what _I_ do."

"Right now," he replied, sadly, looking over the depressing grey view. "So do I."


End file.
